Sunday 24th June

At Sea

2 58.254 S
98 30.082 W (at Midnight)

Gerry had just gone down to sleep and within 10 minutes the wind had increased to 20 knots, as we had the main and the jib up he got up and we furled away the jib leaving the main up with just the first reef in it. It was a mistake, we were then rolling so badly that Gerry couldn’t get to sleep so he got back up and we put the second reef in the main and turned on the engine at low revs to try and steady the boat. It worked to a degree and Gerry went back to bed. The wind was having a fine time keeping me guessing where it was going to come from in the next 10 minutes – it seemed that it blew from every possible direction and at every possible speed during my watch and I ended up hand steering for a good deal of the watch to compensate for the auto pilot that wasn’t coping with the constant change in speed and direction. For the remainder of the night we motor sailed, shaking out the second reef in the main at 06.00hrs and unfurling the jib to it’s fullest extent. Gerry hooked up for the radio schedule at 07.00hrs and then did fish patrol around the deck – 3 flying fish and 1 squid today, then he went back to bed for a while longer as he was tired. During the morning the wind speed was 15 – 17 knots apparent aft of the beam and we were flying along at 7 knots. I had a late morning sleep getting up in time to get lunch and run the water maker. The afternoon was mostly sunny but then a couple of rain clouds hit us and the wind was again all over the place making it necessary to hand steer, eventually this cleared again and we could put George back in control. The remainder of the day passed fairly quickly but the wind played follow me all night and neither of us got too much sleep as the boom banged a few times and it was often hard to keep the jib full as the wind would suddenly veer off further aft. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.